THE HOST COMMUNITIES ARE SOUFRIERE, CHOISEUL, BELLE VUE (VIEUX FORT), MON REPOS AND MARCHAND.

The 2018 Soleil Summer Festival will culminate with the celebration of Saint Lucia’s Arts and Heritage Month.

The official opening ceremony of Arts and Heritage Month took place on Sep. 30, at the Craft Festival in Choiseul.

Executive Director of the Folk Research Centre (FRC), Hilary La Force, expressed satisfaction with the first event, the Cultural Icon Series, and indicated that there was more to come.

“The next activity will be the Woulelaba local cricket festival on Oct. 14, in collaboration with the Marchand Grounds Development Committee. Apart from the Woulelaba, there will be other activities including the vending of local foods and beverages, and stage performances by local groups. The activities start at 9 a.m., and end at 11 p.m.”

The lineup of activities continues with the La Marguerite festival to be held on Oct. 17, followed by the launch of a new Folk Museum at the house of the Late Sesanne Descartes on Oct. 21. The festivities will conclude on Oct. 28, with Jounen Kwéyòl Entennassyonal. This year’s host communities are Soufriere, Choiseul, Belle Vue, Vieux Fort, Mon Repos and Marchand.

“For the past 33 years, we have been selecting four host communities to celebrate Jounen Kwéyòl, and what we’ve advised is that as part of the celebration, they must have creole exhibitions and traditional creole technologies, but most tend to concentrate more on the vending of food and entertainment. We are afraid that we are losing that focus, that initial idea of educating our people, so this time, the FRC has taken the mantle.”

The theme for this year’s International Creole Day is “Dékouvè Ste. Lucie, Dékouvè Kò-ou” (Discover Saint Lucia, Discover Yourself). The month-long festival highlights the richness and diversity of Saint Lucia’s cultural, ethnic, and artistic heritage.